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Issues 2024

Academics

Teaching and learning are the core functions of all public school districts and in 2023 we passed our new five-year strategic plan that sets high academic targets for the county, including 90% proficiency and 98% graduation rate by 2028. These goals far exceed both where our School District has been historically and what are current levels across the state. With our new Superintendent and our new chief of academics beginning to roll out changes, as a school board member I will push to remove barriers to academic success, increase advanced learning opportunities and do everything I can to support our students, families and staff as part of the whole child education approach. 
 

What does that mean?

We need fully staffed buildings to provide proper academic support.

We need the state to fulfill its constitutional obligation to schools as North Carolina ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending in the US. This includes significant pay increases for teachers, funding for Instructional Assistants, and funding for support staff (think school counselors, social workers, nurses and more). Not having classrooms with highly qualified teachers and support staff will have a negative impact on academic success.

We need to get students to school on time.

I’ve supported all of our efforts to hire and retain bus drivers, including increasing pay to $20/hour. At this point we have nearly 200 fewer drivers than pre-pandemic levels so we have a long way to go. The shortages impact not just the number of routes but how long some routes have become, how early we are picking up kids and how late some kids are getting home. The numbers also impact our ability to push school start times back. All of this can be a barrier to academic success.

We need to provide a safe learning environment for all.

As the Facilities Chair, I have prioritized regular updates on safety and security when it comes to our buildings and the implementation of our safety and security audit. Additionally, we must continue to do everything we can to reduce and eliminate bullying in our schools and decrease overall bad behavior in classrooms and on buses. These are challenging issues we face in our schools and we will need the help of families and the community.. As someone that was bullied, we need to make sure kids know what to do when bullied and we must provide them support. Yearlong messaging on the negative impacts of bullying is a must but to have a lasting impact on reducing bullying.  As we work to improve our community engagement, these issues must be a priority.

We need to increase opportunities for academically advanced students.

One of my priorities in talking with the department has been to reduce barriers to advanced learning opportunities for students in K-5. I’m very pleased to have learned that our academic department will be bringing changes before the board in this fall. I look forward to learning about the changes as we don’t want kids to feel they aren’t challenged enough in the early education years.

We need to focus on early childhood education.

For the first time, our academic department hosted an early learning alignment summit to support the transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten. This is a potential game changer for our students as one of the challenges of the school district is catching kids up who are behind entering kindergarten. (Another challenge is that the state doesn’t provide money for school districts to have pre-k classes.) The plan is to expand the reach of the next summit to include Pre-K schools outside of WCPSS and I’ve asked staff to go beyond pre-K and look at what information is provided to families with newborns in Wake County as it relates 0-5 educational goals. 

Facilities Improvement

We have some significant renovations coming to District 6 schools at Sanderson HS and Mt. Vernon MS. Brentwood ES will be getting a new school, but we have more schools with needs. As part of a potential second term on the school board, it’s likely a bond will come before the school board to present to the county. I will work to make facility renovations the focal point of the new bond and work to improve processes to get small projects completed at schools.

 

  • We must prioritize HVAC replacements in schools with repeated problems and we must be transparent about when that work will be done. This applies to a few District 6 schools.

  • I will be advocating for needed renovations at Broughton HS which include replacing the Cafeteria and trailer out back.

  •  I will continue to advocate for replacing all trailers in district 6 with additions to buildings. Trailers were never meant to be long term solutions and we’ve allowed them to stay far too long. 

  • I will advocate to fund projects that should not be left up to PTAs. Projects vary from school to school but too often we’ve expected PTAs to pick up the slack in areas that they should not have to deal with. 

  • I will continue to work for a better process that permits schools to do something as simple as paint their schools. We are so short staffed right now in our facilities departments that we aren’t working on playground improvements nor providing staff to paint the inside of schools. 

  • I will continue to advocate for solar power for all schools, though Duke energy has really made it more challenging with the rates they pay out to solar producers. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t partner with the County on their clean energy goals.

Constituent Services

I will continue to prioritize constituent services as your school board member. Oftentimes families have been surprised how quickly I respond to an email or that they receive a call from me when they’ve left a phone number. I take a lot of pride in the work I do on behalf of the constituents of District 6 and those families who may not live in District 6 but have students in the schools I represent. I will continue to respond quickly to the concerns and questions of families and staff when they reach and to advocate on your behalf.

Communications & Community Engagement

We have a lot of work to do, but we are starting to take some steps.
 

  • Transparency is key. When the District 6 Leadership Academies were facing changes after the St. Augustine's problems, I held several meetings with families (often with over 30 families at a time) and pushed for central service staff to do the same. What was always appreciated was that I was communicating, I was transparent, and that I was listening. That needs to be the norm.

  • We are changing the way we connect with community organizations and the board has emphasized this with our new community engagement community. 

  • We must improve our website. This is a primary tool of engagement and it can be difficult to find needed information. We also have a lot of inconsistency for individual school websites and we need to provide assistance to our schools on this front. 

  • We must continue to listen to our students and families, but we have to do a better job of getting feedback from a broad spectrum of parents. 

Policy Work

The school board policies are about the governance of the school district. Staff brings policies before us to make changes to ensure we are following state and federal law, to better align with the North Carolina school board association and to provide better clarity on policies. Some policies haven’t been updated in a number of years As I have done in my first term, I will continue to listen to the community's concerns and recommendations around various policies.

Among the policies I am or will be working on:

  • Policy Code: 4300 Due Process

  • Policy Code: 6220 Operation of Child Nutrition Services

  • Policy Code: 3225/4312/7320 Technology Responsible Use (Cell Phones)

  • A new sustainability policy which will cover all departments. Potential models include NC State University and Wake Tech. This sustainability policy will include dealing with issues around food waste.

"Controversial Issues"

  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion- Some people have a problem with those words but not me. I value diversity in all aspects of life, equity is about providing students that are behind with additional assistance and support, and we should strive to be more inclusive. 

  • Books Bans- I will continue to push back against book bans and I will continue to trust our librarians and teachers.

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